Tea house (4)

As Ryan walked towards their table, he noticed that Rose had seen him and stopped talking. When he arrived, he greeted them with a warm smile and said, "Hi, guys! I didn't know you were here too." Ryan then took a seat in the chair next to the outer sect disciple and put his hand on the guy's shoulder, hoping his friendly demeanor would make him like him.

Ryan proceeded to say, "I already know who Jack and Rose are, so who are you, junior brother? This is the first time I've seen you around." However, instead of receiving a friendly response, Ryan was taken aback when the outer sect disciple turned his head towards him and said in a chilling, low voice, "Take your hand off my shoulder."

Not expecting such a response, Ryan paused and felt goosebumps rise on his skin as the outer sect disciple repeated his command in an even colder and louder voice.

Ryan couldn't comprehend where everything went wrong. After witnessing the outer sect disciple's behavior, he felt his pride take a hit. As time passed, the air around them grew colder and wilder, and goosebumps appeared all over Ryan's skin. Despite his initial instinct to respond arrogantly, Ryan tried to compose himself. He turned to the outer sect disciple, locking gazes with him, but held back his words after seeing the expression on the disciple's face.

Ryan suddenly felt a surge of fear, realizing that if he didn't withdraw his hand immediately, he could be in grave danger. Even with his family background, he couldn't afford to mess with this guy. As Ryan felt puzzled about why he was feeling this way, he decided to sense the guy's cultivation realm. Surprisingly, he found out that the outer sect disciple was only at the first realm of Qi Condensation realm. Ryan's confusion grew as he locked gazes with the disciple and forgot to speak. He just stared blankly at him until he heard a fake cough from Jack and Rose, which brought him back to reality. Trusting his instincts, Ryan acted accordingly, knowing that whenever he couldn't decide how to act in a situation, his instincts would never fail him.

So Ryan quickly retracted his hand and chuckled, "No need to be so serious, junior brother. I just wanted to be friends with you." As he finished speaking, Ryan looked back at Rose and Jack, noticing that they looked slightly sweaty and shocked. He checked his own body and realized that he too was sweating a little. "What just happened?" Ryan thought to himself, feeling puzzled.

Suddenly, the air around them returned to normal, and the outer sect disciple introduced himself with an apologetic expression on his face. "I'm sorry about that. I don't like people touching me. By the way, I'm Leo. Nice to meet you," he said. Ryan couldn't believe how drastically the guy had changed in mere seconds. Everything about him had transformed except for his eyes. To avoid locking eyes with him again, Ryan turned his attention to the front and replied, "I'm Ryan. Nice to meet you too." He then engaged in conversation with Rose and Jack, trying to distract himself and regain composure.

Leo tried to steady himself after Ryan withdrew his hand. The touch of others always triggered unpleasant memories for him, and he struggled to maintain his composure. However, Leo managed to regain his cool and put on a fake apologetic face before resuming sipping his tea. He listened attentively to the conversation, not wanting to spoil the mood for the others. After a while, Ryan mentioned a disciple dying due to demonification within the sect. This piqued Leo's curiosity, and he couldn't help but inquire further, "Ryan, could you give me more details? Are you saying that a demonic cultivator has infiltrated the sect?"

Leo noticed Ryan's perplexed expression after hearing about his injury. Ryan then explained that a disciple of their sect was found dead in his quarters, with a half-demon and half-human appearance. The disciple had attempted a demonic cultivation technique but failed to achieve it, resulting in a chaotic foundation stage and eventual death. After learning all the details, Leo asked, "Where did you hear about this?" Ryan replied, "My dad is an expert-level alchemist in the sect, so he is privy to the events that take place within it."

Curious, Leo then inquired if the sect had discovered the cause of the disciple's death. "Did they find out where he obtained the demonic cultivation technique?" he asked. Ryan answered, "No, my dad informed me that they are still investigating the cause of the event."

Upon learning that the sect had yet to discover the cause of the disturbance, Leo couldn't help but think to himself, 'So the mastermind behind this event, and its purpose, remain unknown and it's likely still ongoing. If I happen to come across it, and a disturbance occurs in the flow of destiny, I could earn some easy karma points. And now I know that the cause is related to some demonic cultivation technique, my visit to the tea shop wasn't in vain after all.'

After Ryan shared some insider information with him, Leo couldn't help but feel ironic, thinking to himself, 'Here I am receiving insider information. Why do I feel like a dishonest gambler?'

After finishing his tea, Leo decided it was time to return to the sect. As he got up to leave, he said to Rose and Jack, "I need to go now. I have some business to attend to at the main peak." They both bid him farewell with a "Have a good day."

Just as he was about to leave, Ryan expressed his desire to accompany Leo to the main peak. Leo didn't particularly want to deal with Ryan but he accepted his request with a nod, not wanting to waste his energy on such a trivial matter.

As Leo started to leave, Ryan's thoughts raced. "Even though our first meeting wasn't ideal, maybe we could work things out and become friends if we spend some time together." With this in mind, Ryan made an excuse about having business in the main peak and asked to accompany Leo. He saw in Leo a chivalrous person much like himself and was genuinely curious about him, especially after remembering Leo's earlier threat towards him. Ryan was determined to uncover the reason behind Leo's overconfident attitude towards him.

Together, Leo and Ryan left the tea house and headed towards the main peak of the sect.